what area of western wasington gets the most sun? (Seattle: high school, place to live)

[a.jesse]

Grew up in the midwest and ventured out to portland after high school. Met a woman and got married. Five years later and i'm not sure i can take anymore rainy grey days. Were planning on moving to western washington this next summer and was wondering if anyone new of any areas on the western side that didn't have as many rainy days and possibly more sunshine. My wife's family lives just south of olympia in the centraila area so we would like to be withing a couple hours of there if possible. Not sure if anywhere like this actually exists, just wanted check as i'm not all that familar with the state or the northwest for that matter.

[Inkpoe]

If more sun in WA is what you want, would you consider Eastern WA? The Greater Seattle area is like Portland weather-wise but bit more colder, and grayer. Sequim is noted for its blue hole... but it doesn't translate to more sun.

[StealthRabbit]

The very tip of Mt. Rainier probably gets more sun and is close to Centralia, Otherwise (and more realistically) I would start heading east on HWY 12 till you get to a sunny area (Hopefully not clear to Yakima. Which few will recommend as a desirable place to live)
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/publications...nAnnPrecip.pdf
Mean Number of Clear Days - Western Regional Climate Center (WRCC)

I would consider Wenatchee as being 2 (long) hrs to Centralia and 'livable'.

Having been transplanted to we_tside WA from Colorado 29 yrs ago, I haven't got used to rain yet. (And I really miss the 4 indoor swimming pools in the town of 20,000. No pools for many miles in much of We_tern Washington)

[pw72]

It seems we have covered this before, but yes, Sequim and the San Juan Islands get the most sun in western Washington. However, the difference with the rest of western WA is not huge.

If you include the entire state, then yes, the Tri-Cities have more sunny days throughout the year. Plus, they have the warmest summer temperatures. Even in winter, they are the warmest in Eastern WA.

[Bill Loney]

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

I would consider Wenatchee as being 2 (long) hrs to Centralia and 'livable'.

Do you have a magic carpet? It's roughly 250 miles and one or two mountain passes along the way depending upon which way you go.

[AlohaHuey]

Originally Posted by a.jesse

Grew up in the midwest and ventured out to portland after high school. Met a woman and got married. Five years later and i'm not sure i can take anymore rainy grey days. Were planning on moving to western washington this next summer and was wondering if anyone new of any areas on the western side that didn't have as many rainy days and possibly more sunshine. My wife's family lives just south of olympia in the centraila area so we would like to be withing a couple hours of there if possible. Not sure if anywhere like this actually exists, just wanted check as i'm not all that familar with the state or the northwest for that matter.

California.

It's two hours (by air).

You are already a couple of hours from Olympia in Portland. Unless you move to eastern WA, you won't notice a difference in gray/rain.

[nullgeo]

Originally Posted by a.jesse

Grew up in the midwest and ventured out to portland after high school. Met a woman and got married. Five years later and i'm not sure i can take anymore rainy grey days. Were planning on moving to western washington this next summer and was wondering if anyone new of any areas on the western side that didn't have as many rainy days and possibly more sunshine. My wife's family lives just south of olympia in the centraila area so we would like to be withing a couple hours of there if possible. Not sure if anywhere like this actually exists, just wanted check as i'm not all that familar with the state or the northwest for that matter.

May I suggest you search and review the many previous threads readily available on this subject ... you will find all has been exhaustively covered.

Also, if you are unaware, City-Data, which hosts this Forum, has statistical pages on every town in the country -- including weather charts which include sunshine graphs. Go to:
//www.city-data.com/
then type in any town name you can find of interest on any map ... scroll down until you find the weather charts which look like this:

Sequim, WA:

(this one for "sunny Sequim -- which town, btw, you will often read magically has more sun than any other place in western Washington ... but it does NOT ... Sequim, like several locations in the "rain shadow" of the Olympics gets fewer inches of rain but that doesn't mean the sun comes out any more than anywhere else so much that you'd notice ... this is close to the truth for eastern Washington as well ... parts of eastern Washington get more summer sun, but not much more winter sun ... not enough to solve the dissatisfaction you describe.)

It is a simple truth: There is NO sunny place in the NW winters -- period. You need to consider a different geographical area of the country, such as California. (Btw, I lived in Maine when I was a boy ... I understand your desire for some balance ... the NW has about the same hours of annual sunshine as New England, but it is almost all in the summer ... whereas New England has a year round balance that makes the long winters partially cheerful)

Good luck

[ukiyo-e]

Originally Posted by AlohaHuey

California.

It's two hours (by air).

You are already a couple of hours from Olympia in Portland. Unless you move to eastern WA, you won't notice a difference in gray/rain.

I partially disagree. It depends where in CA you are. I lived in San Francisco for 17 years, then Davis, near Sacramento, for 9. I live in Port Townsend now and the winter weather here is MUCH nicer than either of those places. Although Sac gets about the same amount of annual rainfall, it's more concentrated in the middle of the winter. There are plenty of gray, dreary winter days in northern California, especially along the coast, where you even get them all summer. SoCal is a different story, but then you're talking about a longer trip.

And yes...I live in the "sun belt" but that's really a misnomer. It's more of a "dry belt." We get plenty of gray days, but they don't bother me because I like to do a lot of outdoorsy things and the lack of rain is more important to me than the presence of sun.

[gaduchman]

I've been in Sequim and the Peninsula and tho it's in the rain shadow - it's not all that sunny. Sun and PNW or NE US is an oxymoron. There's so much fog to contend with b/c you're on the water. You want sunny - go to Leavenworth.

[nullgeo]

Originally Posted by angelbug

I partially disagree. It depends where in CA you are. I lived in San Francisco for 17 years, then Davis, near Sacramento, for 9. I live in Port Townsend now and the winter weather here is MUCH nicer than either of those places. Although Sac gets about the same amount of annual rainfall, it's more concentrated in the middle of the winter. There are plenty of gray, dreary winter days in northern California, especially along the coast, where you even get them all summer. SoCal is a different story, but then you're talking about a longer trip.

And yes...I live in the "sun belt" but that's really a misnomer. It's more of a "dry belt." We get plenty of gray days, but they don't bother me because I like to do a lot of outdoorsy things and the lack of rain is more important to me than the presence of sun.

Hmmm ... goes to show the truth to "different strokes for different folks." I also lived in the Bay for years -- in S.F. city and east Bay ... I live in the San Juans now, much the same as Pt. Townsend, where I spend lots of time visiting. I live here for a preferential reason -- but it's not the winter weather! I'd take the Bay winter ANY time over Puget Sound ... sure there's a fair amount of rainy, chilly Bay area days, but the average temperatures are 12* - 15* warmer down south than anywhere in the Puget Sound region ... and the sunshine must be easily triple, if not quadrupled, that of up north here. The other trade offs, however, keep me north -- most of the time ... I keep a boat in the Bay for a part time residence in winters

Pt. Townsend:



San Francisco: